Smt. Mrinalini Sarabhai is a famous exponent, choreographer, teacher and institution builder, who is well versed in every aspect of natya. She was a pioneer in popularising South Indian classical dance in Gujarat. She excelled in performing Bharatanatyam, Kathakali and Manipuri which she learnt from great gurus. She moved to Ahmedabad after her marriage to eminent physicist Vikram Sarabhai. In 1949, she launched the Darpana Academy for Performing Arts to teach dance, music, drama and puppetry. As its Founder-Director, she invited renowned gurus to teach Bharatanatyam, Kathakali, and Mohini Attam. She is a well known writer, poet, environmental and social activist.

Years ago, Mrinalini who is past 90 now, was among the first dancers to add a new dimension to classical dance by using it as a powerful medium to present contemporary social issues. Mrinalini Sarabhai is the first Indian to receive the medal and diploma of the French Archives Internationales de la Danse. She is the first woman to receive a Veera Srinkhala for her contribution to Kathakali. She is the recipient of prestigious honours like the Padma Bhushan, the central Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and Fellow, the Kalidas Samman, the E. Krishna Iyer Medal from the Sruti Foundation, and the Natya Kalanidhi from ABHAI (2007).

U.S. Krishna Rao & Chandrabhaga Devi

Guru U.S. (Ubhayakar Shivaram) Krishna Rao was a versatile dancer, choreographer, renowned teacher and author of books on dance.

U.S. Krishna Rao and his wife Chandrabhaga Devi, were famous as the first dance couple of Bharatanatyam. They worked relentlessly in the face of various odds to promote and propagate Bharatanatyam, especially in Karnataka.

Krishna Rao was born on 31 December 1912 in Mallapura in Karnataka. Brilliant in academics, he took to dance in 1939 at a time when dance was looked down upon in society. He commenced his training in the Mysore style of Bharatanatyam under Guru Kolar Puttappa in 1939-40, and learnt Kathakali from Guru Kunju Kurup in 1941-42.

In 1941, he married Chandrabhaga Devi, a science student in his chemistry class. She hailed from a cultured and educated family of South Kanara. Born on 11th August 1921, she started learning dance in her early teens under the guidance of Dr. Shivaram Karanth who believed in free style dancing.

Inspired by the famous Ram Gopal who was a good friend, Krishna Rao, with his wife and two-year-old son went to Tanjavur to study Bharatanatyam from the great natyacharya Pandanallur Meenakshisundaram Pillai in 1943. The dancing duo metamorphosed into highly accomplished dancers in just a few months of very intensive study and practice. On 31st December 1943 they presented their Arangetram in the Tanjore Palace in Tanjavur and went on to perform extensively in India and abroad, giving over 1500 recitals in a dancing career spanning over four decades.

The Krishna Raos choreographed several new dance items and were among the first few to present dance interpretations of several Kannada pada-s.

This versatile dancer can also boast of a brilliant academic record in science. He was lecturer in Chemistry for many years. The scientist that he was, U.S. Krishna Rao was a pioneer in introducing the lecture-demonstration format in Bharatanatyam as early as in 1940 in Mysore. He presented over 800 lecdems in India and abroad, numerous radio talks and TV presentations. The very handsome couple choreographed spectacular dance-dramas like ‘The Temptation of Buddha’, ‘Rani Shantala’, ‘Geeta Govinda’ and ‘Kama Dahana’. They donated lakhs of rupees through benefit performances for noble causes.

In 1971, they took charge of the dance classes run by the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bangalore and 17 students came out with flying colours under their guidance. In 1972, Krishna Rao was invited by the Bangalore University to be Head of the Dance department in the newly started Fine Arts College. He worked for three years putting the department on a firm footing. He served as Chairman of the Karnataka Nritya Kala Parishat established in 1978.

The dancing duo established their own institution ‘Maha Maya’ in Bangalore in 1942 to impart training in Bharatanatyam. They taught more than a 1000 students settled in India and abroad, many of whom are internationally acclaimed dancers like Sonal Mansingh, Indrani Rahman, Sudharani Raghupathy, Kamdev, and Prathibha Prahlad. Numerous disciples like Radha Sridhar, Mamata Neogi Nakra, Sharada Rudra, Shobha Venkataramani, Revathi Sathyu, Mythrai Brahman, and granddaughter Anjali Jayadev have propagated the art in India and abroad.

Adept in playing the flute, the tabla and the harmonium, Krishna Rao trained numerous musicians for dance – both vocalists and instrumentalists.

Krishna Rao authored many books on dance and art: ‘Adhunika Bharatadalli Nritya Kale’ and ‘Bharata Natya Nighantu’ in Kannada; ‘A Dictionary of Technical Words in Bharata Natyam’ (Orient Longman Ltd., 1980), and ‘A Panorama of Indian Dances’ in English. Chandrabhaga Devi also wrote a travelogue in Kannada which won the Karnataka Sahitya Academy award. In 1992, a four-day festival of seminars and classical dances titled ‘Maya’ was held at Chowdiah Memorial Hall to commemorate 50 golden years of the couple’s dancing and teaching. ‘Shrungara’ – a volume on their lives was released on the occasion.

Krishna Rao and Chandrabhaga Devi received numerous awards. Prominent among them are: the Karnataka Sangeet Nritya Academy award (1980); the title of Nritya Kala Siromani from Karnataka Nritya Kala Parishat (1987); the Central Sangeet Natak Akademi award (1987); the Rajyotsava Award (1993), the Shantala Award (1997) from the Karnataka State Government; and the E. Krishna Iyer Medal from the Sruti Foundation, Chennai (2002).

Chandrabhaga Devi, passed away at the age of 76 in April 1997. Fulfilling her wish to continue his service to the art, Guru Krishna Rao continued to teach dance till a few days before his demise. On 31st December 2002, their disciples assembled at Maha-Maya to celebrate Krishna Rao’s 90th birthday. The Grand Old Man of Bharatanatyam in Karnataka died at the age of 92 on 6th March 2005. His disciples joined hands once again on 31st December 2012 in Bangalore to celebrate the memory of their guru on his centenary.

Smt. T. A. Rajalakshmi was my first Bharatanatyam Guru under whom I studied for almost ten years. Like most youngsters, I too in my time, did not realize what a great blessing having a Guru like her was. And much that I learnt about her, as a dancer, was only after I relocated to Chennai from Kolkata in 1970. Teacher hardly ever spoke about herself, except to share of a few anecdotes that would highlight her teaching better.

Smt. T.A. Rajalakshmi, fondly known in her younger days as Rajappa, belonged to Tiruvidaimardur and learnt Bharatanatyam under the legendary Guru Sri. T. Kuppiah Pillai. She was his prathama sishya and theirs was a bond that celebrates the guru-sishya parivaara parampara. In 1945, Sri Govindaraja Pillai, son-in-law of Sri T. Kuppiah Pillai, migrated to Mumbai, then Bombay, from Tiruvidaimardur, in order to set up an institution of Bharatanatyam. His father, wife Karnambal, brothers Mahalingam and Kalyanasundaram soon joined him. What followed is dance history, for with the establishing of Sri Raja Rajeswari Bharatanatya Kala Mandir in Mumbai, the dissemination of this Southern style of dance had begun in that part of our country.

What is lesser known to the world at large is that, at the behest of the Tagore family, Sri. T. Kuppiah Pillai’s second son Maruthappa and prathama sishya T.A. Rajalakshmi were handpicked by Sri Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar and relocated from Tiruvidaimardur to Kolkata, where they created a steady stream of worthwhile disciples.

I remember Rajalakshmi teacher being exceptionally disciplined and very strict. She did not brook any nonsense. For a 5.30 class in the morning, she would be ready and raring to go by 5 am. She would never accept compromise, nor would she tolerate laziness or indifference. She took classes in a small room with a pillar in the middle. She would command silence from the bunch of her brother’s kids, who would sit quietly in a corner, watching the dance classes.

She was unashamedly and endearingly honest, a quality which is a rarity today. I still remember her saying, “I do not know how to create anything new. I can just teach, unchanged and undisturbed what was taught to me by my Guru.” In these days and times, when the mantra seems to be “what is new?” and dancers barely past their arangetrams, become choreographers, I realize even more than ever, how fortunate I was to have received the unpolluted, undiluted wealth of Bharatanatyam from her.

Much later in my life, after I had completed my national scholarship for Bharatanatyam under the visionary Vazhuvoor Ramaiyya Pillai, with whom I studied for four fulfilling years, while on my performance circuits in South India, I would often have senior people coming up to me and asking, “Have you learnt from Tiruvidaimardur Rajappa?” I gradually came to know of teacher’s sway as a dancer; I heard of her exquisite abhinaya, the perfect balance of grace and azhuttham (firmness) in her nritta, her great beauty, her wonderful complexion et al… she was much in demand for performances at weddings and other such festivities… attached to the Madhyarjunam Mahalinga Swami temple at Tiruvidaimardur, she held pride of place amongst those dedicated to dance in that period. When the onus of responsibility of presenting Sarabhendra Bhoopala Kuravanji fell on Kuppiah Nattuvanar’s shoulders, it was Rajappa who donned the role of Mohini. There used to be respect and healthy competition amongst the nattuvanars of that period… and each one would with vie with the other to present their best through their best students… and Kuppiah Pillai, ever convinced of his prathama sishya Rajappa’s karpoora buddhi (a brain that catches on, as quickly, as camphor does fire), would create challenging compositions, even at the last moment, while travelling to the place of performance in the maatu vandi (bullock cart)… And of all this greatness, Rajalakshmi teacher breathed not a word to us!!! Such humility and simplicity! We have much to learn from such souls whose entire existence was dance.

She left Kolkata and returned to Tiruvidaimardur just a few years after I relocated to Madras. Whenever I performed in Kumbakonam, Trichy or Tanjavur, she used to wait for me to come and pick her up, spend the day with me and witness my performance. She continued to teach Bharatanatyam in Janaranjani Sabha, Kumbakonam until her passing away a few years ago.

I am told that Smt. Rukmini Devi Arundale, in her all inclusiveness, had invited Rajappa teacher to join Kalakshetra; teacher had also received invitations to tour and settle abroad. Man proposed, but God disposed and she migrated to Kolkata. I often used to wonder why she did not come to be known as well as some of her contemporaries in the Madras dance scene. Would the story have been different if she had not moved to Kolkata? And of that I am convinced. But what has been Kalakshetra’s and the world’s loss, has been my gain and that of many a dancer of Kolkata. My gratitude to the Almighty for this blessing of fate will ever remain undiminished.